Overall American
employment added 1.6 million jobs in 2011, compared with only 940,000 jobs
added to the economy in 2010. Unemployment has dropped from 9.6% last year to
only 8.9% now. Still, some 14 million Americans remain out of work.
In spite of these
encouraging overall gains, the employment situation in the construction industry
remains bleak. Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce
released a study last week analyzing 2009 and 2010 Census Bureau Community Survey
data, and concluding that among all recent college graduates, the highest
unemployment of all, at 13.9%, is the group with degrees in architecture,
comparing quite unfavorably with overall unemployment of only 8.9% for recent
college grads as a whole population.
Bureau of Labor Statistics
data for December 2011, showed 200,000 jobs created for the month, but only
17,000 of those were in the construction sector of the economy. Across the
United States December 2011, industrial construction starts totaled only $10
billion, including $4.6 billion in power generation and distribution; $1.8
billion in manufacturing; $1.2 billion in the pharmaceutical and biotech
sectors; and $1.0 billion in the food and beverage sectors. Geographically, $2.8
billion in industrial construction starts are on the west coast; $2.1 billion
in the Great Lakes region; and $1.4 billion in the midwest.
